Tolskaya Virgin (battleship)

One of the seven 74 cannon ships built at the Kherson shipyard. For the first time in the practice of domestic shipbuilding, the tank and the ships were connected by a continuous deck, which made it possible to strengthen firepower and improve sail control ^[1] .

The ship "Tolskaya Virgin" was laid in Kherson and, after launching, became part of the Black Sea Fleet . In 1800 he moved from Kherson to Sevastopol .

As part of the squadron, he was on a practical voyage in the Black Sea in 1802 .

On October 2, 1804, with a detachment of the Balaklava infantry regiment and with food on board, he left Sevastopol to the shores of Megrelia , where it was planned to organize logging of ship timber for the needs of the Black Sea ports. The ship was accompanied by the brig "Alexander" under the command of Lieutenant Commander Vlito ^[2] .

Due to bad weather conditions, the sailing was delayed, and due to the soldiers on board, the consumption of food and water was very high. Therefore, the detachment was forced to go to replenish supplies in the town of Platan, in which it stood for 13 days. On October 24, the voyage was continued, and by December 2, the Tolskaya Virgin and Alexander came to the shores of Megrelia . Vessels anchored at the mouth of the Khobi River ^[2] .

Over the next week, soldiers from the Balaklava regiment detachment and food were transported from ships to the shore, and some sailors and officers from the ship and brig were also sent ashore to replenish fresh water. At midnight on December 8, the wind blowing from the west intensified and a storm soon began. By 6 o’clock in the morning the ship was already drifting to the shore, and was at a depth of 4.5 fathoms, then in waves it began to hit the bottom.

From the chronicle of the disaster:

On December 8, after a big swell from the west, which had begun the day before, a strong storm with great excitement and frost began to drift; the ship finally thrown into the breakers was broken and flooded with excitement: the foremast and the bowsprit broke at the very base of them and fell into the water; water then began to pour through the bowsprit hole into the lower deck; the mizzen mast also broke; the beams moved away from the sides. The upper sides cracked, the deck grooves parted, the bulkheads and pillers moved; there was up to half the water in the hold. They wanted to cut down the main mast for relief, but it itself broke and, falling to the right side, lifted the dowels on the left side, began to beat the waist and tipped the ship with its weight. The shock of the waves also knocked out the gun ports

Soon the "Tolskaya Virgin" was completely filled with water and sank to the bottom. Above the surface of the water, only the upper deck remained, flooded with waves that carried people to the sea. Seeing the hopeless position of the ship, the ship's captain ordered the crew to evacuate ashore.

After the battleship broke into almost two parts in the middle, the bow, held by anchors, remained in place, and the stern was dragged to the shore. The commander of the ship, I. A. Shostak, with a group of officers was on the stern. When the feed stopped in shallow water, the destruction of the sides began. By nine o’clock in the morning on December 9, the battleship Tolskaya Virgins was completely destroyed ^[2] .

As a result of the shipwreck, the commander of the ship, 7 officers and 156 sailors died ^[3] .

After several years, the circumstances of the death of the battleship interested V. M. Golovnin , and when he became the quartermaster general of the Russian fleet, he described this crash as follows ^[2] :

The death of the Tolskaya Mother of God ship, among many other such shipwrecks, serves to convince mariners that on open roads of large seas one should never rely on anchors, but the ship should always be put in such a position, if circumstances and circumstances permit, and keep it in such readiness that, when a storm sets in from the open sea, it is immediately possible to sail and get off the coast. This caution is especially needed in the fall and winter, when storms are more frequent, stronger and longer.

Such terrible consequences were accompanied by the wreck of this ship that of the 255 people who made up its crew, 8 officers and 150 lower ranks died, over whom another 6 soldiers from the army, drowned in this ship, were drowned, and 5 officers and 92 survived lower ranks; of these, however, only 28 people survived the shipwreck, while the rest were so happy that they went ashore before the storm.

This fatal incident shows that it was impossible for the crew to think about saving magazines and other ship papers, and therefore it was impossible to draw up a detailed description of this shipwreck.

At different times, the commanders of the Tolskaya Mother of God ship were:

• PM Kharlamov (1799-1802).
• I.A.Shostak (1804).

• Veselago F.F. List of Russian warships from 1668 to 1860. - SPb. : Printing Ministry of the Ministry of the Sea, 1872. - 798 p.
• Chernyshev A. A. Russian sailing fleet. Directory. - M .: Military Publishing House, 1997 .-- T. 1. - 312 p. - (Ships and ships of the Russian fleet). - 10,000 copies. - ISBN 5-203-01788-3 .
• Shirokorad A. B. 200 years of the sailing fleet of Russia / Ed. A. B. Vasiliev. - 2nd ed. - M .: Veche, 2007. - 448 p. - ISBN 978-5-9533-1517-3 .